PRS 5 - Processing and sharing the data

At this stage the team members should come together to compile, triangulate and analyse their findings. It's essential to feed back to the school stakeholders and check the data with the various groups who informed the research team.

What’s involved

Compiling, triangulating and analysing the data: Ensuring as participatory an approach as possible and working with both the researcher and other members of the data collection team, jointly compile, triangulate and analyse the data. Triangulation (cross checking) of the data is essential. Although the same survey questions are used with each group (children, teachers, parents, etc), the answers will vary. This might be because one group has better access to information (e.g. the head teacher will have access to information on numbers of children dropping out of school that others may have to guess at). Or maybe some groups don’t hear about or would rather not talk about certain issues (the children might tell you about incidences of violence in school that other groups have failed to mention). It’s important to be aware of the differences in information provided by the various groups and to decide carefully what action to take. You may decide to return to the school to carry out follow up interviews, or to look again at school records and other sources to double check the numbers given. During this process you should compare the primary data gathered from the schools with information about laws and policies regarding the right to education both at national and international level. Identify any inconsistencies or gaps in provision and consider how the evidence generated can be used for advocacy purposes at local, district, national and even international level. Consider for example how it might fit with wider campaigns.

Feeding back to school stakeholders and checking the data: At this stage the research teem should share the results with key school and community stakeholders, including those who were involved in the research process such as children, parents, teachers and education authorities. This process will also help you to validate your findings and make any adjustments as necessary. It will then also contribute to the drafting of the School Improvement Plan. The stakeholders will prioritise issues raised and agree on those that they would like to address. The information will also help with programming as we plan our work. Think about the best way to share this information. A PowerPoint presentation might not be the best/only way of communicating to school children and their families. You might prepare an interactive drama, short video, poster, handouts, or a combination of these.